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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 2019)
SN Siuslaw News VOL. 129, NO. 78 NEWS & VIEWS THAT DEFINE OUR COMMUNITY F LORENCE , O REGON WEATHER Morning rain followed by sun with a high of 61 and low of 43. Full forecast on A3 COMMUNITY Florence Festival of Books — today at the FEC INSIDE — A6 SPORTS TH THESIUSLAWNEWS.COM SATURDAY EDITION | SEPTEMBER 28, 2019 | $1.00 Schultz & Associates Law Center , P.C. Invites You to a FREE Workshop on Estate Planning. How to Protect Assets from Long-term Care Expenses! Attend a workshop and receive a FREE no obligation, private consultation with Attorneys Scott C. Schultz & Jeff rey D. Krebs to answer any questions. ( $300 value) Tuesday, October 1, 2019 1:30-3:30 PM or 6:00-8:00 PM FLORENCE EVENTS CENTER 715 Quince Street • Light Refreshments Provided 969 Willagillespie Road Eugene, OR 97401 Seating is Limited! Registration required. www.schultz-law.com or (541) 485-5515 Florence Police, Siuslaw School District work together to decrease “red light runners” Story & Photo By Chantelle Meyer Siuslaw News R ed lights, especially flashing red lights, are a clear ex- pectation that people on the road should stop. This is especially true when those red lights are on a school bus that is stopped — or so Siuslaw School District wants to remind area drivers. Now, working with the shared Florence Police Department and Siuslaw School District position of School Re- source Officer (SRO) Brandon Bailey, Siuslaw Transportation Supervisor Tammy Trenholm is driving up awareness for a serious issue in this community. “People aren’t stopping for school buses,” Trenholm said. “This is a problem we want to bring light to. We’re addressing it.” Statistics from the last school By Jared Anderson Siuslaw News RECORDS Obituaries & emergency response logs Inside — A2 SIDE SHOW Activities and comics every Saturday Inside — B4 CLASSIFIEDS Listings and public notices Inside — B5 FOLLOW US FOR THE LATEST NEWS : /S IUSLAW N EWS @S IUSLAW N EWS T HE S IUSLAW N EWS . COM Postal Customer Florence, Ore. 97439 Red light, full stop Siuslaw School District bus routes are getting assistance from Florence Police Department as officers help enforce mandatory school bus stopping laws. Drivers are asked to remember that they must stop across all lanes of local roads and Highways 101 and 126 if a school bus flashes its red lights. year show that many drivers failed to stop adequately on area roads and highways. In the 2018-19 school year, there were 294 red light runners on the district’s bus routes. Of those, 37 drivers were contacted and sub- mitted statements to enforcement, and approximately half of these re- sulted in a citation. Since reporting red light run- ners falls on school bus drivers, who also have to focus on student safety and road conditions, not ev- ery license plate gets fully record- ed, or properly. Raising kids in a digital world Mapleton wins at volleyball INSIDE — SPORTS I NSIDE ! “If there’s one thing that you leave tonight knowing, it’s that you don’t have to know anything about technology,” Collin Robinson said. “What you need to do is have con- versations with kids. Early. Before you put a phone, laptop or tablet in their hands.” Robinson, the guest speaker at Florence Community PTA’s “Par- enting in a Digital World” Work- shop on Tuesday, is a freelance web developer with two kids, 14 and 18. “I’ve raised kids in a digital world,” Robinson said. He works with the National PTA to provide real-world tools for par- ents in navigating the sometimes difficult world of social media, mobile phones and video games that have become an ever evolv- ing presence in everyday life. The topics he included in his discussion cover screen time, online reputa- tion, forming a digital family plan, and meddling behavior. The overriding theme of the dis- cussion was simple — “Don’t pan- ic.” While the diversity of available technology may seem daunting, the content often disturbing and the ramifications of misuse devas- “It’s difficult for the drivers to see the plate number and recite it correctly while driving,” Trenholm said. This school year, Trenholm and Bailey have come up with a solu- tion. See RED LIGHTS page 11A Florence PTA hosts workshop on parenting with technology tating, keeping an open and honest dialogue open between children and parents is key to surviving the tech induced world society has cre- ated. “As parents, we just need to real- ize it’s generational, and this is just what our kids are into now. And it’s okay,” Robinson said. “They’re go- ing to be okay.” UNDERSTANDING APPS The first thing to understand about technology is that it is diffi- cult to fully understand, particular- ly when it comes to social media. “How many of your kids are on Facebook?” Robinson asked the group of 30 parents, few of whom raised their hands. “Kids won’t go near Facebook now because that’s where we are. They have their own applications and their own chan- nels. But those things change all the time.” The list of popular teen apps is endless — TikTok, Discord, Tum- blr, Twitch, Snapchat. But the list is transitory, with different apps gaining and losing popularity at the drop of a hat. “I try and keep app agnostic,” Robinson said. “We don’t know what’s going to come out tomor- row.” See DIGITAL page 9A Charter/Spectrum bill causes confusion Planning Commission approves Organizations Florence Yamaha relocation request respond to concerns First Step receives conditional use permit with statement By Mark Brennan Siuslaw News S IUSLAW N EWS 2 S ECTIONS | 20 P AGES C OPYRIGHT 2019 Florence’s Planning Commission met Tuesday evening to consider requests from two stakeholders who required approval by commission- ers before proceeding with plans to relocate a successful local business and to provide additional tempo- rary housing within city limits. City Planning Director Wen- dy FarleyCampbell first presented commissioners with a proposal from Katherine Lenox on behalf of the organization First Step, which is closely affiliated with the Pres- byterian Church of the Siuslaw. First Step requested commis- sioners approve a Temporary Conditional Use Permit to al- low the organization to continue to place three camp trailers on the Presbyterian Church proper- ty, south of the main structure, for the purpose of transitional housing in the highway district. Greg Wood is the pastor for the First Presbyterian Church of the Siuslaw and is also the president of the board of directors for First Step. His presentation to commis- sioners was primarily a response See PLANNING page 8A By Mark Brennan Siuslaw News The City of Florence has a le- gal responsibility to receive pay- ment for the authorized use of city assets such as infrastructure, physical locations, machinery, equipment or personnel ser- vices. While many of the city’s assets are visible — Florence City Hall, Miller Park and the Flor- ence Event Center for example — others are less noticeable, like underground water, telecommu- nication and electric lines. Florence, like many munici- palities, enters into a contracted situation with a number of inde- pendent, third-party companies, which allows these companies to use city assets to conduct busi- ness within city limits. The use of the public rights-of- way is regulated by Florence City Code Title 8: Public Ways and Property, as well as applicable federal and state laws and other city ordinances and resolutions. This part of city code mandates a fee collection from third parties for use of any public assets based on a formula that determines the amount that needs to be paid to the municipality. The imposed surcharge is usual- ly about 5 percent of the revenue See BILLING page 7A
